So how do Massachusetts Democrats feel about all this? A few days ago, The Boston Globe’s Joan Vennochi wrote that President Obama was afraid to unlikely to appoint Elizabeth Warren as head of the new Consumer Protection Agency that she fought for and then built, so now her supporters are pushing a Senate run against Republican Scott Brown as a “consolation prize.” According to Vennochi, this initiative isn’t being received all that well here in Massachusetts.

On paper, her candidacy would attract women, liberals, and money from both constituencies, locally and nationally. “She’s tough as nails . . . She’s smart as hell and she could wrap Scott Brown around her little finger in a debate,’’ said Philip Johnston, [John] Walsh’s predecessor as state party chairman.

But Warren isn’t well-known, beyond a small circle of elite Democrats. She has never run for office or built a grassroots organization. And a handful of candidates already in the race won’t be happy about being big-footed, leaving current supporters in an awkward spot.

Massachusetts Democrats aren’t too pleased with the DSCC these days after they and Obama chose not to support Martha Coakley against Scott Brown. State party chairman Walsh told Vennochi that he probably wouldn’t support Warren’s candidacy, since he is backing John Kerry’s chosen candidate Setti Warren. Vennochi:

The idea of Washington Democrats imposing their will on Massachusetts Democrats is distasteful. The DSCC, especially, is not popular here after its tactics largely backfired in the special election that Brown stunningly won. A lack of initial support for Democrat Martha Coakley was followed up by a belated barrage of negative ads that hurt rather than helped Coakley.

The DSCC can also come off as bullies.

Last month, when Kerry was hosting a fundraiser for the DSCC at his Beacon Hill home, he wanted to invite Setti Warren to the event. But the DSCC said no to inviting only one candidate because the group didn’t want to look like it is taking sides – unless, of course, it’s Elizabeth Warren’s side.

Besides, would Obama pitch in to support Warren for Senate? Somehow I doubt it.

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44 Comments on “Elizabeth Warren for Senate? MA Dems Not On Board So Far”

Like Bernie Sanders…a real Dem MUST run as an Independent imo . It is a great waste of her time and engery to try to get those who just fired her, to get behind her now. Take a page from Bernie’s book. Liz…..though MA is not VT…she might have to hire body gaurds if she tries this

Indeed! But in this case it’s a no brainer ! lol! Perhaps when Warren says she needs to think about it, she means wheather to run as an Indy. Because it is POINTLESS for her to try to run as a machine MA Dem….Sanders in VT has created the model

Frankly I support the independence of Massachusetts Democrats. Since Obama took over the DNC, it really isn’t a Democratic organization anymore. We in Massachusetts are not big Obama fans, except for the governor. MA went for Hillary in 2008 by 15%. That’s pretty telling.

Running on the Democratic ticket would be the kiss of death for Elizabeth Warren, just as it was for Coakley. Remember how Coakley won the Dem. primary because she said she would not vote for Obamacare? Once she won, however, the DSCC made it clear that she would have no financial support unless she publicly, and privately, agreed to support Obamacare. Although Coakley had some other issues as a candidate, her biggest drawback was not having an independent network of financial supporters. When you take the king’s coin, you sing the king’s song. If Elizabeth Warren wants to maintain her independent voice, she needs to run as an Independent. I’m sure a ton of MA women would help to make up her grassroots network; and with her Harvard connections, she could probably find the fundraising support she needs among alums.

Yes, Coakley was against Obamacare because of the Stupak anti-abortion clause. MA Dems are liberals. We support women’s right to choose here.

Coakley switched her stance on Obamacare after being threatened by the DNC and not getting support from Obama. She would have been better off to stick to her guns. I think she would have won if she had. But she lost a lot of women’s votes when she wimped out.

to be honest , when they cave, they do so in such a manner that I swear they are told if you want to live, do as you are told. We are talking about the stealing trillons here. No one person can stand in their way…if they could, Hillary would be at 1600 PA ave.

You’re saying just what I said–when Coakley was willing to represent the views of MA Dems, she won the primary. Unfortunately, AG’s tend to run on their legal abilities, not as career pols, which meant she didn’t have the pre-existing money network that she needed to run a complete campaign beyond the primary without institutional Dem financial support. I don’t think she was hurt by the lack of support from Obama, except, perhaps among the Obot voters. To the contrary, once she agreed to give her support to Obamacare, she looked like just another Dem hack, and Brown, sadly, looked like the independent voice.

These are strange times, BB. If ever there was a time for victory by an Independent, I think that time is now. So many people are fed up with legacy political parties that anyone vowing to run against the system has a real chance today, whereas even two years ago the legacy parties had a lock on the elections.

seems to me Coakley was doing well…until she was made to jack boot to and sell the WH tune about health Insurance. She then sunk like a stone.

Have we forgotten how Obama’s WH is the kiss of death for Dem candidates? ….Hill won the state by 10 % even with Kennedy and Kerry working hard for Obie….if Liz wants to win the seat , she has to stay clear of the Dems…imo

The question about going indepenat is not just one before the voters…but it’s before the candidates as well

Do you live in Masssachusetts? I’d love to have Warren as my Senator. It’s true that she hasn’t had any legislative experience, but I think she would learn quickly just like Hillary did. On the other hand, I’m sympathetic to the point of view of MA Dems, who have been royally screwed by the national party already. They don’t like being pushed around and I don’t blame them.

Frankly, the notion of “machine politics” here on the state level isn’t really valid. Maybe if you’re looking at local politics in Boston. I can’t think of any independents who have won major offices here. Do you know of any?

Yeah, I do. And just to clarify, I want a woman in that seat, it being Elizabeth Warren is a Huge Bonus.
As far as Independents, I’m hoping the undercurrent of displeasure with Obama amongst people who identify as democrats would translate to an Independent winning that seat. (My wildest dream is that an Independent would beat Obama.) At the local level, they all are Independents-but that’s small town/city. I don’t know of any winning at Boston level.

Cool. I never knew you lived here. I would love to have Warren run. Maybe an independent could win, who knows? I don’t know how invested Warren is in the Democratic Party. I know Hillary would never run as an independent, for example. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

I don’t know why any sane person would want to be part of that bunch of dirtbags in the Senate. Seriously. Every last one of them makes me sick (with a little less nausea when it comes to Bernie). They all answer to their corporate masters. They have no principles. I don’t think Warren has the personality to sell herself out for campaign funds or to get along. I hope she doesn’t run. She would be more effective outside that cesspool.

And, of course, Massachusetts Dems should decide. It’s their state. Not the effete Kerry, though; he is thoroughly loathsome. Pompous ass, standing for zilch. And any Dem, unfortunately, will capitulate before Obama’s thuggish ways. Now that Murdoch has been revealed, more than ever I believe Obama has the goods on every single Dem politician in the country – through wiretapping, spying, whatever. Watch while he makes them go along with gutting Social Security and Medicare. And they will. Ugh!

I’m glad you brought up Warren. I’ve been wondering, given the timing of Obama appointing someone other than Warren to head the CPA, if she was a bargaining chip in the ongoing negotiations. The Republicans have wanted her gone so badly, I wonder if Obama offered her up in exchange for some tiny concession.

That is true. A pundit on NPR this a.m. stated that Obama and his people had a “complicated” relationship with Warren, that he/they didn’t really like her. To me, that rings true. Obama has been Geithner all the way and we know how Geithner loathes Warren.

You’re right, paper doll, he doesn’t need an excuse to give the GOP what they want, I was simply speculating about whether he kept her around to appease the left, all the while knowing he was going to get rid of her as a concession.

Warren also held nothing back while addressing threats by top Republicans to block confirmation of any person nominated to lead the new agency.

“We started this fight two years ago,” she said, recalling resistance to calls for a protective agency following the nation’s financial crisis.

“Senator Shelby and others who were his allies did not want any consumer agency at all. And if it absolutely was the case politically that there had to be one, they wanted some weak agency that couldn’t get anything done. We had that fight and then we had a straight-up vote on it…That side lost,” Warren asserted.

“And here we stand, a year later with the minority saying ‘I don’t like how that came out.

I think I have the capacity to stick a stick in the spokes, unless the majority will do what the minority wants it to do.’ That’s not how democracy works,” she countered.

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) gained infamy in May when he went on a childish tirade against Professor Elizabeth Warren, who is currently setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as a special adviser to President Obama. McHenry, a former College Republican hack, repeatedly accused Warren of lying about the agreed-upon time for testimony she gave before Congress.

According to a ThinkProgress analysis of new campaign finance data released on Friday, McHenry received $63,800 from lobbyists and executives from banks, mortgage companies, payday lenders, pawn shop executives, and other predatory lenders in the last three months alone. Notably, much of the campaign donations from payday lenders came on a single day, April 20, 2011

Let’s face it, Coakely was a weak candidate, how she won the Democratic nomination was beyond me.
I thought for sure Capuano would have won and was shocked when he didn’t.
Coakely was meek, wasn’t a fighter and it has NOTHING to do with her gender but rather her personality.
I won’t say that Warren will be any better because she seems a bit soft spoken too but she has been outspoken about the GOP trying to put the kiboch on the consumer protection agency.
Even when Coakley was AG she was NEVER someone who spoke out strongly on anything at all.
Coakley thought she would cruise to victory because Massachusetts residents wouldn’t dare vote a Republican in to replace ted Kennedy right? Well, as we all saw that was dead wrong thinking.
Warren already has Senator Kerry and many other prominent Democrats backing her so it is very much entirely possible she will run.

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